The industry lacks any technique for detecting card “shimming.” A shimmer device steal information off of card chips and Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) off of Euro pay Master® and Visa® (EMV) cards. Shimmers are beginning to become the device of choice for thieves in the industry as a variety of mechanisms exist to detect skimmers but none are available to detect shimmers. Skimmers read the magnetic strip of cards whereas shimmers steal data from predefined contact points on the cards (such as specific locations on the embedded chip of cards).
Banks have focused on skimmer detection and during that process have switched out consumer cards to cards having embedded chips believing cards with chips to be superior security to cards without embedded chips. Meanwhile, thieves have developed shimmers that steal card information off contact points of the embedded chips and, at present, the banks have failed to produce any reliable shimmer detection and prevention hardware and software security.
Thus, shimmers present significant challenges in the card industry and will continue to be problematic for the industry for the foreseeable future.